A ‘thought leadership campaign’ is about coming up with a great idea. It’s also about finding allies who will help you spread that idea. When you take the time to identify and individually cultivate people who have platforms that can really amplify your idea, they will reach audiences you’d never reach on your own.
The world is big. We all need help reaching every corner of it. And that’s the rub. You can’t possibly scale to deliver your idea to every corner of the world on your own. Harry Truman said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
You need to decide what’s more important – your idea taking over the world or you getting credit for it.
You’re sitting in a conference room. Violet from Sales stands up to give her presentation on next year’s growth plan. You see your growth strategy slide in her deck. She didn’t tell you that she was going to use it. She’s not saying that it’s your slide as she presents it.
You have two choices. You can get really mad that you’re not getting credit and shut Violet down in the meeting. Take that Violet! Or you can be happy that the right strategy is getting presented by people other than you, which might give it an even greater chance to become the strategy of the company. Your choice may differ every time this happens, but it’s always important to stop and ask yourself the question.
Or let’s say you give a great TED talk. It’s a smash. During the next year you get 4 million views. Amazing! You’re invited to speak lots of other places, the book deal is happening. Your idea is taking over the world.
And then you see that people speaking at TEDx events all over the world are quoting parts of your talk without attributing it to you. These dozens of TEDx talks have gotten a combined 40 million views. Would you like your idea to scale 10x even if the words didn’t come out of your mouth? That’s entirely up to you. What’s more important? You or what your idea can do?
Every great idea, whether it’s your growth strategy or a new AI technology that will transform healthcare, has an energy and momentum all its own. You get to decide whether to cultivate that energy by enlisting amplifying allies or to shut it down by forcing it under your control. It’s always up to you!
Your business must scale, and you must scale with it. Great communicators create the change they want to see in the world. poseycorp helps innovators build powerful messages and the skill to deliver them so they can break through the noise and be heard! Click here to receive pragmatic communications advice in your inbox every month.
